Genealogy Resources

Evidence Explained
Elizabeth Shown Mills, queen of genealogical citations, wrote the incomparable book and recently created the website of the same name. Her site provides complementary instruction and examples. Her book is enormously helpful and belongs on every genealogist's reference shelf.

FamilySearch.org
From the world's largest genealogy library, this phenomenal website is run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah. They are committed to keeping the site free, and charge only a minimal fee to rent microfilms that have not yet been digitized. The only challenge is learning how to navigate the site. It is affiliated with the Family History Library.

Find A Grave
Photos of tombstones are uploaded by volunteers, who sometimes add genealogical information to cemetery listings. Not all posts contain accurate information, but it is still a useful resources for leads. Their content is free and may vary from BillionGraves.

Fold3.com
Provides members excellent digital images of mostly American military records, and many other useful documents. (Formerly known as Footnote.com)

Fulton History ("Old Fulton")
By far, this is both the most unusual and best free site for New York research. Thousands, or perhaps millions of pages of newspapers from every corner of New York have been scanned and made available to search with OCR detection. This can lead to some questionable results, but if you are both patient and creative, you might strike gold.

Genealogy Interpreter
Here I am! My goal is to provide high quality genealogical services and resources to Deaf and Hearing clients. While you are visiting, check out my blog.

GeneaWebinars
This site lists a wide variety of genealogy-based webinars in an easy to follow calendar.

Geni.com
This is the wikipedia of genealogy sites, with a free and subscription version available. Useful to a point, the risk is posting years of work only to find someone else modifying it incorrectly, or lobbing off entire branches of your tree when merging profiles. Still, there is enough unique data to make it worth checking from time to time.

HeritageQuest
This useful research site requires a subscription, usually through an academic institution.

Jewish Gen
This is a website for many areas of Jewish Genealogy. It is free, although one must register to use it. The search features are limited unless you pay a subscription fee (to unlock the advanced search features).

Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston (JGSGB)
This society provides workshops live and on recorded cds. They are helping organize the 2013 International Conference on Jewish Genealogy to be held in Boston in August 2013.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars
This site hosts numerous free webinars. Archived webinars are also available, though some have a fee.

Legal Genealogist Blog
Written by a genealogist with a law degree, Judy Russell helps us understand the intersection of law and genealogy for matters of copyright vs. fair use, and other tricky situations.

Library of Congress
Among their collections, they hold a huge number of newspapers from all over the United States.

Massachusetts Genealogical Council
Dedicated genealogists work tirelessly to ensure continued access to public records, and host an excellent annual conference.

Massachusetts State Archives
This collection holds the many years of the Massachusetts Vital Records, and much more. Some of these materials have been digitized, and are accessible to NEHGS members on that website.

Mocavo.com
This is a searchable site, but Genealogy Interpreter has not fully explored it yet. One can often get a free year's membership to Mocavo with a membership in APG.

My Heritage
This is a new resource to my arsenal. So far it has been much more helpful than sites like Geni, and is on par with Ancestry for finding lost living relatives who share common ancestors. I have not yet unlocked this site's full potential.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
Many of our nation's records have been put on microfilm and are available through a variety of sites. Still, a tremendous number of documents have not yet been filmed, and are only available in person the Washington, D.C. area (or by mail).

National Genealogical Society
(NGS)
A national organization providing resources for professional development and more.

New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS)
This is the place that started it all for me. In the 1920s, my great grandfather hired NEHGS to provide elaborate research for our family. I've been blessed to inherit the binder full of gems that genealogist found, long before the advance of digitized documents and the internet.

New England Chapter of the Association for Professional Genealogists (NEAPG)
This is the local chapter of the APG, which gets together several times a year for a variety of events, ranging from social gatherings to professional workshops and business meetings.

New England Regional Genealogy Conference (NERGC)
Hosted biannually, and said to be an important regional conference.